the fiscal cliff that is in front of us today. >> chris: president obama andspeakerboehnersoundingupbeat about prospects to cut a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff. after the panel and congressional leaders met at the white house, rhetoric was reassuring. the question is: is it real? do you get a sense, bob, this is the subject of your new book, that they do see or beginning to see a path to compromise or are they trying to reassure the nervous consumers before the christmas holidays? nervous investors because the stock market has gone down 1,000 points. >> symp nervous about this. the next six weeks could be the six weeks that shook the united states if they don't fix this. there is clearly a new move. the way they will this is hostage otherwise, republicans are determined not to let the tax rate goes up. the president is determined or is determined to get more revenue. and it's possible to do this. and the president is going along with some idea of entitlement reform that we are going to actually cut spending. this is really -- they are going to have to -- they are lagerhead on the tax is

directly at odds with house speakerjohnboehner. >>could you accept a deal that does not include tax rate increases for the wealthy? we've seen talk about a possible compromise that could leave rates the same but cap deductions for high-income earners. is that something that's acceptable? >> no. >> not at all no, way? >> no. the preponderance made it very clear in his campaign that there are not enough -- what you just described is a formula and a blueprint for hampering our future. you cannot go forward -- you have to cut some investments. if you cut too many you are hampering growth, you're hampering education, investments for the future. >> and even thousands of miles away it appears president obama is still focused on those negotiations. while touring a royal monastery with secretary of state clinton in thailand the president was overheard mentioning the budget talks to a monk. the president later clarified his comments -- >> he's not any monk. >> no. >> he has some big i vestments in the stock market. >> he later clarified his comments at a news conference. >> yes, we were working on

to avoid tax hikes and spending cuts.johnboehnerisasking to outline a plan and get fellow republicans on board. ryan will likely be under the most pressure to back away from his conservative politics. his run for vp no doubt brought him some new-found respect and political clout amongst his colleagues. they say they will confident they will be able to reach some sort of a deal by the engineer of the deal, they need to be at an impasse when it comes to taxes. they said any deal to reduce the deficit should come through pro-gross reforms. that means things like lowers rates, and closing loopholes. >> just to close loopholes is far too little money, and they have said they weren't it to be revenue neutral. the president has been very clear, that the higher-income people have to pay their fair share. >> that means no deal from the democrats if republicans will not agree to raise taxes on the wealthy, but pelosi says she is optimistic. more john coming up after the break. stay with us. ♪ created ad message for little caesars who proudly salutes unites

the microphone with pelosi and with reidandboehneratthe side saying that revenue is on the table, but when the talks ramp back up after thanksgiving, is this an issue to be real negotiation or dig-in time? >> i hope it is time for a negotiation. look, if there is one thing that we learned from the president's campaign, he promised to raise taxes on the wealthy. and here is a news flash to the republicans out there, elections have consequences, and that is what he wants to do, and i'm sure he is going to accomplish some of that, but on either side when you dig in before the negotiations start, not only does it look bad, it makes the markets go up and down, and it creates instability, and insecurity among the people out here in the country feeling the pain and the brunt of some of the economic policies and the fact of the matter is that both sides need to come into it with some level of give and take, and that is how you govern and get it done, and if the president is going to ak kccomplish the polis that he did in first term that he promised in the second, he is going to have to get some of